I had the unique opportunity this week to shadow a few ocean discovery classes and advanced animal sciences classes. I have taught both numerous times, but as I have been more focused on direct work with animals I was given the opportunity to shadow a few classes and see what changes have been made. I was in luck this week because the classes all happened to be high school aged students visiting from Argentina on an educational school trip. It was so refreshing to see large groups of teenagers here to learn and not to just run amuck on their summer vacation. We have a few Spanish speaking guides that generally work with these classes because they can communicate more effectively, but the groups actually asked for English speaking guides to help further the student's understanding of the English language.
It was very interesting to see kind of a joint struggle between students and instructor in order to gain a mutual understanding from each other. I give a lot of credit to the instructor for going above and beyond and learning a number of phrases and sentences to help guide students. One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing the instructor not be afraid to get a little silly to get a point across. Sometimes expressions and body language can bridge a language gap and help get a point across. The students also came prepared with a lot of questions and taught the instructor a very cute song about dolphins they had made up and one that I hope can be shared with camp kids in the future. By the end of my observation it was clear that not only did the students learn a lot, but the instructor did as well.
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